Monday, August 28, 2017

Tale Of A False Positive

A few months ago I was swooning over a wine. Gushing wouldn't be an
overstatement, as I suggested (not yet halfway through the year) that this wine could be the wine of the year. Imagine my regret when, not once, but twice now I've had a hard time drinking any more of that wine.

Talk
about remorse. For starters, I stocked up on it and have several
bottles left of a $20 wine I can't bring myself to drink. Then there's
the fact that such a strong recommendation no doubt resulted in others
making a similar buy. (Sorry!)

What happened?

Did
the wine change? Possible, but unlikely - it's a young chardonnay, so I
doubt it. Did I change? Nah - that infatuation was too recent for me
to have suddenly fallen down a curmudgeon hole. So, what gives?

One
of the first wine retailers I ever knew had a saying: you can't
separate sensation from experience. Around the time I recommended that
wine so highly, was also in the midst of an ongoing personal rant
against wine styles that favor caricature-like distortions over balance
or form. In other words, a lot of wines have the volume turned all the
way up (as lamented in this piece
titled, Why Is My Wine Yelling At Me?). So, my state of mind around
that time was one of frustration and disappointment at what has
seemingly become of the norm in mainstream wine. What's more is the
target of a lot of that sentiment has been domestic chardonnay.

Along
comes the Limestone Hill chardonnay from De Wetshof. It tastes nothing
like California and, more importantly, tastes nothing like chardonnay
from the west coast. It's new, it's different, and it's dazzling
because it's new and different. But now, with some time and distance
from that initial wow, its merits in non-comparative reference, well,
pale. It is neither balanced nor restrained, nor really palatable.

I've
learned this lesson before and still can't seem to get it right. By
way of this cautionary tale, let me offer to you the same advice I'm now
reminding myself of: make sure you've had a wine at least twice before
you go off half cocked and buy a bunch of it. And don't take some wine
blogger's word for it, either!